


Misconceptions

by Rabid_X



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: #coulsonlives, Dethklok reference, Fix-It, M/M, Post-Movie, my first avengers fic, with no real explanation how
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-14
Updated: 2012-07-14
Packaged: 2017-11-09 23:28:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/459693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rabid_X/pseuds/Rabid_X
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone assumes that the black coffee is Clint's and the herbal tea is Phil's.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Misconceptions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [emocezi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/emocezi/gifts).



> Thank you to emocezi for the read through and the shared love of this pairing!
> 
> If you find any mistakes, please let me know.

People think it’s Coulson who drinks the green and mint tea. They’re wrong; the tea is Barton’s. He likes it with two spoons of raw sugar or honey if his throat is bothering him. The Snake Charmer taught him about herbal remedies and teas. Mint for settling upset stomachs, green to cleanse and honey to sooth. He would rub Clint’s shoulders and arms with balms to take the ache out of muscles strained from over use and quietly loved Clint when the archer turned seventeen. Clint misses him sometimes. 

Phil drinks English style tea but he used to use Lipton’s or Tetley’s or whatever plain tea bags were handy around the coffee service. He’d dump enough sugar in it to rot the teeth of half of the country and drink it because it was warm, slightly caffeinated and sugary. When he found out Clint was shocked and appalled. He took Phil (and that’s when he became ‘Phil’ and not ‘Coulson’ when they weren’t on base) out for proper tea, complete with milk, tiny sandwiches and scones. Phil’s grandmother used to drink her tea like that and Phil likes that he has that in common with her now.

Some people think the black coffee in the disposable cups (and recyclable cups. SHIELD went Green in the cafeterias and snack areas a long time ago) are Barton’s. After all, Coulson puts so much stuff in his tea there’s no way the inky black cups of extra strength are his. Of course they are. He runs on his father’s adage “If you can’t stand it black, why are you drinking coffee?” Relaxing at home or out he’ll add cream or the odd flavor but the SHIELD coffee is actually excellent in its purest form.

Clint dumps as much sugar in his coffee as possible. He likes the sugar and caffeine rush. It dances subtly along his nerves and makes him feel warm inside. It is in no way a reminder of late nights on the road when he was young enough to still get along with his brother Barney. He was given his first cup of coffee at age ten. He can’t explain to Phil why it’s okay to sugar coffee so much and still it has nothing to do with Barney or the comfort of a faded memory.

Phil likes caramel apples. Honest, dipped in melted caramel apples stuck on sticks. No fancy chocolate pieces or cookie/fruity/kitsch of the month flavors. Buttery caramel wrapped around a nice, crisp fall apple the tarter the better. There’s the crunch and the sticky pull and he knows his teeth and weight gain and the mess those things leave are all things he should consider but he searches them out each fall. They come hand in hand with burning leaves and fireplaces needing to be lit and Phil thinks of the family farm and how much he misses his grandfather’s big strong hands helping him over fences. 

Red candy apples are Clint’s favorite. The cinnamon crackle with the gush of the apple juice makes him happy. Bella, the Strong Man’s wife, made the best. She wouldn’t allow any of the performers to eat the cheap ones the food vendors sold on the midways. They came in plastic bubbles and had been made god knows how long ago and god knew where. Bella’s came wrapped in wax paper or just handed out the door of her wagon. Clint loved smelling the cinnamon drift out of her train car and lined up with everyone else to try to get one while it was still warm.

They both love egg rolls of all kinds. Neither is sure why but they always have. Sometimes Phil will get a sack of them from the hole in the wall Chinese place down the street from SHIELD. Best Chinese place in the city and SHIELD’s almost secret. He’ll split the bag open on the edge of his desk, set the sauces out and Clint will wander in, sit down and start helping them disappear. It’s become an end of the month ritual. 

They both hate circus peanuts.

Phil was surprised by the depth of Clint’s hatred for Pink Floyd. Phil’s not a huge fan but he doesn’t hate them. Clint will almost destroy a radio to change stations if a song comes on. He even tossed an iPod overboard when another agent thought he’d appreciate a song. All Clint will say about it is that one person’s road music is another person’s hell. 

Clint was shocked the day he realized Phil liked more than Big Band and Swing music. Hearing Phil softly hum “Thunderhorse” from Dethklok sent his mind reeling. “It’s a fake band, a death metal parody and a cartoon, Coulson!”

“Yes. And they’re funny and the creator’s a talented musician,” Phil said and went back to humming; apparently having given all the explanation he felt was needed. Phil thinks he might tell Clint about Cary the guitarist someday. How much he loved heavy metal, the darker and faster the better. He might even tell him about how a mugger took Cary’s life one night as they were both leaving a dingy metal club in Chicago, Phil two days from leaving for the Army. Phil was too drunk to notice the gun and hasn’t had a drop of alcohol since. 

Clint thinks Phil likes Dethklok because their manager, Charles Ofdensen, is a Phil clone: quiet, efficient, always wears a suit, good at wrangling a herd of drunken cats and deadly as all hell. Came back from the dead too, just like Coulson. Now he just has to get Phil glasses like the cartoon guy… 

Yes, Clint has a mild glasses kink. So does Phil so it works out. Clint’s comes from the first time he ever fell in love. Her name was Charity Gilson and she was the hottest librarian in the whole world, thirteen year old Clint was sure of it. She never questioned why he was in the library during school days for the whole week he was in Wichita Falls, Texas. She just smiled at him, jiggled around in her tight sweaters – god, the nights he had thinking of those – and her glasses, punky hornrims with little fake diamonds on the sides of the frames. Jane’s assistant Darcy showed up in a pair of those once and Clint had to leave the room before he took out years of adolescent fantasies on her right there on the coffee table. 

Phil’s not sure where his glasses kink came from. Could’ve been the whole ‘secretly naughty librarian’ or the ‘scientists wear glasses and brains are sexy’ thing. He just knows he like them and the time Clint jokingly tried on Banner’s pair, Phil had to leave the room before he broke a beaker or two shoving Clint up on the lab table. It wasn’t as bad when he caught Banner again, glasses in their proper place, thank god or he’d never get anything done.

They both love poutine. Anytime they’re in Canada or far enough north in the USA, they will seek out the best places to get the gravy and cheese curd topped fries. They’re tried several variations over the years but the classic remains the best in their minds.

Phil loves Captain America. Not in a sexual way (though Clint’s not entirely convinced about that) but in a whole hog, geeky, boyhood hero crush sort of way. The Avengers all know this, Steve knows this, hell Phil’s co-workers know this. And he finally got his wish, got some of his cards signed by Captain America, who was swiftly becoming a friend. It doesn’t matter to Phil that they aren’t the ones he picked the first time, these are the best.

Clint disagrees. His favorites are the bloody, vintage cards that live in a museum case in Stark Tower’s Avengers Wing aka the souvenir room. There’s a brass plaque too:  
 _-in Memoriam – Philip J. Coulson  
He brought us together…The mightiest of us all_

Of course he wasn’t dead, just mostly dead, coding out several times for a total of twenty six minutes. That doesn’t stop Tony from keeping the display there. It doesn’t make it any less true and they all know that. Only Phil hates it as much as he loves Captain America. 

“It’s a lie,” Phil says and Clint tugs him close and kisses the side of his head.

“No, it’s not. It’s true, you know it, they know it,” Clint tugs Phil out of the room and further down the hall.

Phil’s voice is thick when he finally speaks, ten feet from the door to Clint’s suite. His eyes still have the shadows of pain lurking in them, two weeks out of the hospital and two months out of the coma. “Do… you…”

“I know it, Phil, I always knew it. You’re my hero… god that sounds cheesy, but it’s true. Fuck Cap,” Clint’s eyes are fierce and he frowns when Phil shakes his head. “What do you… oh.” Clint’s face falls but he doesn’t let go.

Phil sighs and lets Clint hold him close. “I love you, Clint. Didn’t say it before.”

“Is that what you meant?” Clint asks and Phil nods against his shoulder. “I, wow, I love you too. Can we please get into my room before someone spoils this?”

Clint loves Phil gently, taking the lead, riding Phil slowly, making sure Phil only feels pleasure and no pain. Phil loves back harder, fingers making marks on Clint’s skin, something to be there in the morning. Something visible, something his.


End file.
